media

1. Evaluation
Question 4/5
(CONTINUED)

2. Here’s what people had to say
about my media product…
I really liked it! I thought the music fit
really well with the general tone of
the piece and the use of close up
shots of Kieran’s face work really
well. It works really well as a horror
and the atmosphere is set as soon
as you start. I’d definitely watch this
if it was an actual film!
I think the lighting and the use of
the photos as both props and the
credits works really well! I like how
you can see what he’s thinking
when he picks up the
photographs is really good; the
use of editing to cut in between
the scene and what the
character is seeing makes it all the
more creepy!
I wasn’t really sure if the main
guy was a good guy or a bad
guy? That could’ve been
clearer. I also think that the
shots of 9/11 and the car
could’ve been missed out as
they aren’t really very clear.

3.  I asked a few people – ranging both inside and outside of my target
audience – to give their opinions on my media product. I wanted to
know whether or not they enjoyed the piece and whether or not
they would watch it if it was made into a feature length film.
 The responses I got were very pleasing and I was happy with the
fact that even though I only asked a small number of people (if I
were to do this again I’d probably get a bigger sample size of
people to ask), they all gave very helpful responses. A lot of people
liked the atmosphere of my piece and they liked how Kieran’s
character was having flashbacks when he looked at the
photographs.
 A few responses I got were confused about whether or not Kieran’s
character was actually meant to be a protagonist or an antagonist;
although I did ideally want it to be understood that my character
was definitely a protagonist, after evaluating and re-watching my
piece I’m actually quite pleased the line is slightly blurred initially
and it presents my character as an enigma and also links to the
representations I was talking about in question 2.

4. How did I present my character in
my piece to attract my audience?
 As my target audience is 18 +, I wanted my protagonist to appear to be of a similar age;
this would encourage the audience to relate to my character on certain levels. However I
also wanted to use the age of my character as a tool alongside mise en scene to set the
atmosphere and make the audience uncomfortable. The images my character sees and
the fact he keeps himself locked away in a dark room makes him the antithesis of a
“normal” 18 year old and this therefore throws the audience, creating a sense of intrigue
and mystery around my character and ideally attracts them to find out more.
 My target audience is also obviously interested in the horror/thriller genre so I used mise en
scene and sound to attract the audience to my piece. Horror films are conventionally
disturbing in tone and usually contain gory, scary or unsettling imagery and I used this
convention in my piece to attract my audience; in the photographs, there are images of
broken glass and blood, as well as the disturbing images I edited in to symbolise what the
character sees in his head. I also made sure that the area I filmed in was dark and small,
giving a slightly claustrophobic feel, and that the props were positioned to be everywhere
you looked, like they were surrounding the character. The music I used was also
intentionally dark and foreboding. All of these elements correlate with the conventions of
the horror genre and by using them, it enabled me to create the disturbing and menacing
tone that horror films nearly always have. This attracts my audience as it is appealing to
what they like and are familiar with.

5.  Linking back to Question 2 about how I represented my character, I
think the complex representation of my protagonist will attract my
audience. Through the age of my character, mise en scene, props
and set, I have deliberately stuck to horror conventions and the
common components of the genre in order to attract my audience.
However my protagonist strays from the usual representation of
males in horror films (the jock, the nerd etc) and also it is not
immediately clear whether or not this is a character you’d want to
root for. I’ve done this by representing him on one hand as a brother
who is desperate to find his missing sister (represented by the baby
photo and the reaction he has to the flashbacks) but on the other a
young man falling quickly into the hands of a disturbing obsession
(represented by all the photos, the gory imagery and the dark
lighting). I believe this would attract my audience as it provides
them with a character who is slightly different to the usual
conventional characters you get in horror fims, without straying too
far from the aspects that make the genre what it is. It also allows the
audience to try and work out my character and actually enables
my film to be even more disturbing and scary as they are left unsure
of what my character is going to do next.

6. Shots I used to attract my audience

7. These gory shots appeal to the audience as
they stick to the conventions of the horror
genre and provide the audience with
something they know and love.

8. These two shots link to my earlier point about using the complexity of my character
to attract my audience. The shot on the left is right after he has a disturbing
flashback; the lighting on his face is bright and his concerned expression conveys his
worry for his missing sister and represents him in a positive light. However the shot on
the right is the other side of the coin, it shows my character staring intently
downwards at the photograph, his expression dark and the lighting on his face is
very dim. This is used to show the darker side to my character and how his obsession
is slowly taking control over him and he’s becoming deeply intertwined into the
disturbing images he’s seeing (the dark lighting and expression is a physical
manifestation of the dark thoughts overcoming him).

9. Why I chose my actor and why he
decided to take on the role?
 I’ve worked with Kieran closely many times before, both in acting
and directing, so I already knew he was a highly talented actor and
that he could carry the role easily. I also trusted him to be able to
convey the complexity of the character which he did so very well. I
think Kieran took on the role because he was interested in how
obscure the character was and how different he appeared in
contrast to your usual horror film protagonist. In real life Kieran is very
easy going so it was also probably a nice change to play a
character who is extremely intense and obsessive. Kieran is also
somebody who I believe would be in my target audience so to
have him play the main character would attract the audience
towards my piece as they could relate on certain levels.